2017: Eighteen percent of Texas’ energy is generated from wind and solar power, with wind making up the majority of the state’s total renewable power generation.

IMAGE: Soonthorn Wongsaita | Shutterstock.com

From the spread of electricity thanks to co-ops to the dawn of the fracking industry, harnessing and consuming electricity and energy have hit many milestones since 1944, the year Texas Co-op Power debuted.

1944: The Pace Act extends the mission of the federal Rural Electrification Administration indefinitely beyond its original 1946 expiration date.

2017: Eighteen percent of Texas’ energy is generated from wind and solar power, with wind making up the majority of the state’s total renewable power generation.

IMAGE: Soonthorn Wongsaita | Shutterstock.com

1954: Bell Labs demonstrates the first practical silicon solar cell, powering a radio transmitter and toy Ferris wheel with energy from the sun.

1954: The first pocket transistor radio, the Regency TR-1 from Texas Instruments, goes on sale.

1958: The first commercial nuclear power plant in the U.S. opens as the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania.

1959: The REA kicks off its 25th year having made $3.8 billion in loans to 1,030 electric systems, mostly co-ops, an amount that provided new or improved service to 4.5 million consumers across 1.4 million miles of line.

1962: The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association signs an agreement to deliver the U.S. electric cooperative model overseas.

1964: Sony develops the first VCR for home use.

1965: The Great Northeast Blackout plunges all of New York, portions of seven neighboring states and parts of eastern Canada into darkness for up to 12 hours.

1967: Texas Instruments releases the first handheld calculator.

1968: The North American Electric Reliability Council, which oversees the interconnected power systems of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, forms.

1968: Scientists demonstrate the first liquid-crystal display, or LCD.

1969: Beginnings of the internet.

1969: The first automated teller machine in the U.S., devised by Dallas engineer Donald Wetzel, is installed on Long Island.

1972: The first digital electronic watch, a Pulsar LED prototype built by Texas engineer George Thiess, debuts. Thiess is a director at HILCO EC in Itasca.

1972: The Magnavox Odyssey console becomes the first interactive video game to use an ordinary home TV.